How does the US Tiktok ban work?

 

Explainer

How does the US Tiktok ban work?

 

TikTok has gone dark in the US for both users who have already downloaded it on their phones and in mobile app stores

 

Guardian staff and agencies

Sun 19 Jan 2025 05.19 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/10/how-does-tiktok-ban-work

 

TikTok is no longer available in the US. In both mobile app stores and on users’ phones, the app has gone dark.

 

When opening the app, users who had already downloaded TikTok before 19 January were met with a pop-up message that prompted them to learn more about the ban or close the app.

 

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” the message read.

 

More than 170 million Americans used TikTok. Lawyers for the company contend that banning the app violates the first amendment rights of those tens of millions of users; the argument did not sway a federal appeals court, which upheld the ban-or-sale bill in December. Congress passed the legislation with a bipartisan majority in April. US legislators fear that China will collect sensitive data on American users and spread propaganda through the app, though they have produced no documentation of such manipulation. That said, the supreme court wrote in its opinion that even if China had not yet attempted to exert its influence over the platform, that there was “substantial evidence” to suggest it could one day do so.

 

TikTok’s future is still uncertain. Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated Monday, says he wants to give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban.

 

Here’s how the ban is playing out:

 

What becomes of the app?

Existing users can open TikTok, and the app icon still appears on their phones, but they are not able to scroll through videos.

 

New users will not be able to download TikTok from app stores and existing users will not be able to update it, because the law prohibits any entity from facilitating the download or maintenance of the TikTok application. In a 13 December letter, US lawmakers told Apple and Alphabet’s Google, which operate the two main mobile app stores, that they must be ready to remove TikTok from their stores on 19 January.

 

The cloud service provider Oracle could see some disruption to its work with TikTok. Oracle hosts TikTok’s US user data on its servers, reviews the app’s source code and delivers the app to the app stores – all services it will be forbidden from providing when the ban goes into effect. Google declined to comment, while Oracle and Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

 

How will users be affected?

Experts believed TikTok’s 170 million users in the US would probably still be able to use the app because it was already downloaded on their phones. Then, over time, without software and security updates, the app would become unusable. That is not what happened. ByteDance shut off access to TikTok the day before the ban went into effect.

 

Some users have begun posting TikTok videos instructing others on how to use virtual private networks (VPNs), which mask an internet user’s location, as a way to circumvent the possible ban.

 

Content creators who have built businesses from their TikTok followings are preparing for the worst. Nadya Okamoto, who has 4.1m followers and founded August, a menstrual products brand, said TikTok helped her business grow organically through viral videos. A TikTok ban could force her and other small businesses to spend more on marketing and raise their costs.

 

“It’s very stressful,” she said. “If TikTok goes away, we’ll be OK, but it is going to be a hard hit.”

 

What happens to TikTok’s employees?

TikTok’s 7,000 employees in the US are still trying to figure out their fate. After a US appeals court upheld the sell-or-ban law on 6 December, pessimism spread among staffers who began worrying about layoffs, said one current employee.

 

But the company has continued to make job offers for new roles, prompting some confused job seekers to ask for advice on Blind, an anonymous forum for employees to discuss companies.

 

One user posted on Blind that they received a job offer from ByteDance in San Jose, California, starting in February. Others commented on the post, counseling the user to accept the offer and use it as leverage in other interviews.

 

“I signed the offer and will wait and watch how the situation unfolds,” the user said in the Blind post.

 

What will advertisers do?

TikTok’s US ad revenue is expected to total $12.3bn in 2024, according to the research firm Emarketer, and while that is much smaller than Instagram’s owner, Meta Platforms, advertisers say TikTok’s devoted user base means some brands will try to advertise beyond 19 January.

 

“The ongoing assumption is the app might not be updatable, but you’ll see a groundswell of usage,” said Craig Atkinson, CEO of digital marketing agency Code3. The app’s e-commerce feature TikTok Shop, which lets users purchase products directly from videos, has no direct competitor that advertisers can easily switch to, Atkinson said, adding that his agency was signing new contracts with clients to build TikTok Shop campaigns even as of late December.

 

Some advertisers may continue spending beyond 19 January on TikTok and re-evaluate if the app sees declining usage or performance, said Jason Lee, executive vice-president of brand safety at the media agency Horizon Media.

 

Are there potential buyers?

TikTok has repeatedly said it cannot be sold by ByteDance. That hasn’t deterred the billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team who said he has secured $20bn in verbal commitments from a consortium of investors to bid for TikTok.

 

McCourt has not yet spoken with ByteDance, but said he believes the supreme court will uphold the law requiring TikTok’s divestment, after which the parent company would be more open to sale discussions.

 

McCourt and his team have had “preliminary conversations” with members of the incoming administration of Donald Trump, who had tried to ban TikTok during his first term in the White House but has since reversed his views, and are also seeking a CEO to lead the app. McCourt’s business plan for TikTok includes migrating the app on to open-source technology and earning revenue through e-commerce and licensing data for AI training.

 

Has this happened before?

The state of Montana banned TikTok in May 2023, planning to make the app inaccessible to state residents come 1 January 2024 before a US judge blocked the ban. Like the federal ban, Montana’s targeted the app store, but unlike the nationwide prohibition, the state threatened Apple and Google with $10,000-a-day fines as long as they made TikTok available.

 

What will China do?

Under Chinese law, officials in Beijing would probably need to approve of such a large sale for it to go through. In March, China signaled opposition to a forced sale, which, along with TikTok’s declaration of the impossibility of divestment, renders the outcome unlikely.

 

What will Donald Trump do?

Trump, who first championed banning the app in 2020, now opposes it after finding a large audience there during the presidential election. After his inauguration, he says he wants to give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban. Previously, he filed a brief with the supreme court on TikTok’s behalf to stay the ban until he takes office on 20 January, arguing that he possesses the “consummate deal-making skills” that could lead to a deal to sell the app and preserve its place in American society.

 

As the ban and his own inauguration approached, Trump told his associates that he was considering issuing an executive order that would prevent the app’s disappearance. As the US commander-in-chief, he can influence how the justice department enforces that law that underpins the ban. He has pledged to “save TikTok”.